CyberFortress https://cyberfortress.com/ The world’s fastest, most pain-free and secure recovery solutions Fri, 23 Dec 2022 16:16:45 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://cyberfortress.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/cropped-favicon-32x32.png CyberFortress https://cyberfortress.com/ 32 32 Protecting Backups from Ransomware [Q&A] https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-backups-from-ransomware-qa/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-backups-from-ransomware-qa/#respond Wed, 21 Dec 2022 20:30:09 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1841 CyberFortress CEO Bret Piatt recently sat down with Ian Barker of BetaNews for a Q&A discussion on protecting backups from ransomware. As ransomware attacks continue to rise, so does the need to protect backups. As the last line of defense against ransomware, backups are essential and it is crucial that they are properly protected. In […]

The post Protecting Backups from Ransomware [Q&A] appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> CyberFortress CEO Bret Piatt recently sat down with Ian Barker of BetaNews for a Q&A discussion on protecting backups from ransomware. As ransomware attacks continue to rise, so does the need to protect backups. As the last line of defense against ransomware, backups are essential and it is crucial that they are properly protected. In this interview, Bret dives into the new sophisticated methods cybercriminals use to attack, best practices for protecting backups, common mistakes organizations make in their DR plans that prevent full recovery, and more. Read the Q&A in its entirety here. 

The post Protecting Backups from Ransomware [Q&A] appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-backups-from-ransomware-qa/feed/ 0 Confusion as a Service https://cyberfortress.com/blog/confusion-as-a-service/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/confusion-as-a-service/#respond Thu, 15 Dec 2022 18:11:25 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1804 The problem with “as a Service” and Disaster Recovery Today You’ve, no doubt, experienced some kind of disaster recovery event. I could have been something as big as a complete loss of location and services, or the outage of just a specific application. No matter how big or small, when most of us go through […]

The post Confusion as a Service appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> The problem with “as a Service” and Disaster Recovery Today

You’ve, no doubt, experienced some kind of disaster recovery event. I could have been something as big as a complete loss of location and services, or the outage of just a specific application. No matter how big or small, when most of us go through our first disaster, we figure out on the other end that your ability to respond was a bit slower than desired and, quite possibly, the outcome itself didn’t go exactly as you thought it would.

The challenge is to proactively address the recovery specifics for a disaster that hasn’t happened. You either attempt to guess all the potential disasters that can occur, the losses from each, and work backwards to the types of recovery services that will assist. Or, you look at the operational needs of the business, determining what the recovery requirements are for each critical workload, and determine how the various “aaS” recovery offerings can assist in meeting your recovery objectives. Read more in our ebook, Confusion as a Service

The Challenge of Disaster Recovery and “as a Service” Today

Confusion also exists because many IT organizations don’t actually know what kind of recovery they need. This is because of an IT-centric approach to disaster recovery – one that looks at the recovery process from more a per data-set, per system, or per-application basis. The problem with this is, while it will certainly define what needs to be recovered in a disaster, it does little to align your recovery needs with these strategic recovery services.

Infrastructure as a Service

Today, cloud infrastructure’s normal use is a bit of a hybrid between DR and infrastructure, where organizations are less thinking about using it to react to a DR event, and, instead, be ready for one should it happen. For example, critical workloads that need to be “always on” (e.g. email, website, ecommerce) utilize secondary servers running in a cloud infrastructure to keep those workloads
continually running. In other cases, some applications, such as an ERP system, don’t have great way to backup and must use that vendor’s solution – in this case, it makes more sense to have the application run in the cloud for higher availability.

Disaster Recovery as a Service

In a typical DRaaS scenario, everything needed for a recovery should already in place – on boarding of data and applications is complete, internal and provider teams are sync’d up on failover processes, servers and services are replicated, and the recovery environment is configured for failover. The only thing left to be done is the failover itself during a disaster event.

To ensure a successful DR strategy, defining what parts of the recovery process – from defining backups, to building the recovery environment, to establishing, testing and executing recovery plans – need to be handled by the DR provider. Once this is defined, you now have an understanding of where DRaaS – and the chosen provider – will help to achieve your recovery goals.

Backup as a Service

BaaS, In a tactical sense, it comes down to two things: cloud-based storage to host backups and management of backups. BaaS provides the organization with access to all the space needed – along with the bandwidth, compute, etc. all necessary to support the storing and retrieving of backup data. Generally, BaaS is an unmanaged offering, with the simple obligation on the part of the provider to keep the backup data target up and running.

Protecting Cloud Data

Your recovery strategy – which includes some or all of the services mentioned throughout this ebook – has the singular goal of recovering operations to a known-good state. And, if those operations should include cloud-based applications, you need to incorporate the protection of those applications (to the best of your ability) in your strategy.

Choosing the right “as a Service”

The most critical aspect of the selection process is to ensure you are considering the needs of the organization, determining whether the provider meets those needs. As outlined in the eBook, we provide a comparison among each service, and then cover some of the considerations when choosing the right provider.

Download ebook

CyberFortress Data Protection Options

Curious to learn more about CyberFortress’s suite of data protection services for your company? We offer a range of solutions from cloud backup and disaster recovery services to software backup. Learn about our data protection solutions here.

The post Confusion as a Service appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/confusion-as-a-service/feed/ 0 Release Notes: Jungle Disk Backup Software https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-release-notes/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-release-notes/#respond Fri, 09 Dec 2022 13:58:09 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1786 This includes release notes for all editions of Jungle Disk backup software, including Jungle Disk (formerly Workgroup Edition), Jungle Disk Server Edition, Desktop, and Simply Backup. If a note only applies to one platform or edition, that will be specified. 3.34.4 (macOS Only) – Nov 21, 2022 FIXES 3.34.3 (macOS Only) – Nov 8, 2022 FIXES 3.34.2 […]

The post Release Notes: Jungle Disk Backup Software appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

This includes release notes for all editions of Jungle Disk backup software, including Jungle Disk (formerly Workgroup Edition), Jungle Disk Server Edition, Desktop, and Simply Backup. If a note only applies to one platform or edition, that will be specified.

3.34.4 (macOS Only) – Nov 21, 2022

FIXES

  • Fixed an incompatibility with macOS 13.0 Ventura and Network Drive when uploading large files.

3.34.3 (macOS Only) – Nov 8, 2022

FIXES

  • Network Drive now compatible with macOS Ventura (13.0 and later).

3.34.2 (macOS Only) – Mar 2, 2021

IMPROVEMENTS

  • At the beginning of any Backup Vault operation (backup, restore, cleanup), the software will now verify that the locally stored Backup Database is the most recent version of the database available. Previously, this was only done once, during application startup.

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where the software would incessantly check for software updates if the initial attempt to login failed.

  • Now compatible with macOS Monterey (12.0 and later) on Apple Silicon (M1) and Intel Mac hardware. Under the hood, this involved updating our JungleFS file system extension to version 4.2.4. Users installing this version on Mac hardware with Apple Silicon will be required to make system changes to allow the JungleFS extension to load, this is needed to enable Network Drive mounting. Please see our support guide for more details on how to allow JungleFS installation (https://support.jungledisk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260806375789-JungleFS-Guide-For-M1-Apple-Silicon-Macs)

  • Fixed an issue with the Sync Folder icon overlays (the Jungle Disk icon that appears on local folders configured to sync with Jungle Disk Network Drives) that would cause the icon overlays to stop working in an upcoming release of macOS 12.3 (as of this writing, this version of macOS is still in beta).

3.34.1 (Windows Only) – Dec 2, 2021

IMPROVEMENTS

  • At the beginning of any Backup Vault operation (backup, restore, cleanup), the software will now verify that the locally stored Backup Database is the most recent version of the database available. Previously, this was only done once, during application startup.

  • Windows installers have been simplified and no longer require full installation of the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable (Windows 10 and later)

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug where the software would incessantly check for software updates if the initial attempt to login failed.

3.33.0 – Jun 8, 2021

FIXES

  • Now compatible with macOS Big Sur (11.0 and later) on Apple Silicon (M1) Mac hardware. Under the hood, this involved updating our JungleFS file system extension to version 4.1.0. Users installing this version on Mac hardware with Apple Silicon will be required to make system changes to allow the JungleFS extension to load, this is needed to enable Network Drive mounting. Please see our support guide for more details on how to allow JungleFS installation (https://support.jungledisk.com/hc/en-us/articles/1260806375789-JungleFS-Guide-For-M1-Apple-Silicon-Macs)

3.32.3 – Jan 22, 2021

FIXES

  • Now compatible with macOS Big Sur (11.0 and later) on Intel-based Mac hardware. Under the hood, this involved updating our JungleFS file system extension to version 4.0.5. Because of that update, installing this version will prompt users to approve a system extension.

  • Automatic software updates on macOS will now restart both the frontend and backend services. Users may still see an error message after update about version mismatch. This error message can be dismissed, and we’re working on making that go away.

  • Fixed macOS issue with using the print dialogue to ‘Save as PDF’ on the Network Drive. Previously, this would save an empty file to the Network Drive, instead of the PDF data that should have been saved.

3.32.0 – Jun 23, 2020

NEW FEATURES

  • Multi-Threaded Backup Vault Upload: Jungle Disk users can now customize the number of simultaneous upload “threads” for a backup job configuration. The setting defaults to one thread and maxes out at ten threads, enabling users to take advantage of the bandwidth available on their networks by uploading more data at a time, resulting in faster backup times. Previously only available in Jungle Disk Server Edition, this feature is now also available in Jungle Disk (Formerly Workgroup Edition).

  • Backup Scripting: With this feature, previously only available in Jungle Disk Server Edition, users can set Jungle Disk to trigger any executable file before a backup runs, after a backup runs, or if a backup run fails. This can be useful in situations where data needs to be created/compressed before a backup runs, deleted after a backup runs, or if there is special logic required in the event a backup fails.

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Simplified and decreased executable size of Windows Installer.

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug that caused failures/errors when creating Personal S3 Online Disks in the EU region. This bug most likely impacted users creating Personal S3 Online Disks for the first time.

  • Fixed a bug in Jungle Disk Server Edition that prevented users from setting or changing an Online Disk encryption password in the Activity Monitor. This bug only affected Online Disks stored in Google Cloud Storage.

  • Fixed a bug that would cause timestamps shown in logs and the “Errors and Warnings” dialog to be 9-10 minutes ahead of the correct time (macOS only).

3.31.3 – Jan 15, 2020

FIXES

  • Jungle Disk accounts with multiple macOS users that updated to 3.31.2 may have experienced an issue with “metadata” files being repeatedly duplicated in the root of a “shared” Network Drive. For accounts with users on both macOS and Windows, this issue may have produced filenames that exceeded the maximum length for a filename on Windows, which prevented any files from being displayed on Network Drives. This release fixes the metadata file duplications, and solves the display issue.

3.31.2 – Dec 12, 2019

IMPROVEMENTS

  • This release includes some major structural improvements that dramatically impact the location and access of application files. We hit the highlights below, but recommend reading our blog post (https://www.jungledisk.com/blog/whats-new-in-jungle-disk-3-31-2-for-macos) going into further detail if you have any custom scripts running on Jungle Disk application files or any machines with multiple users running backups.

  • Network Drives are now connected using JungleFS, a FUSE-based system extension that allows us to overcome file-system bugs in High Sierra and make our application overall more resilient to OS updates. Users will be prompted to allow installation of this extension, which will show as published by “Jungle Disk, LLC.”

  • With the update to JungleFS, Local Drives will now be mounted to a new default location and will have user-level permissions, not system-level permissions. Any process or application without user permissions will not have access to the locally mounted drive.

  • Jungle Disk services now run with user-level permissions instead of system-level permissions. Because of the move to JungleFS, our application files must be in a user’s home directory rather than at the system level. When updating to this version, the app will migrate the files automatically. This may impact some automatic backups or sync folders if the user does not have permission to access the directory being backed up or synced.

  • We’ve updated our compiling and runtime processes to conform to requirements to get our application notarized by Apple. This ensures the native OS can protect against any malicious third-party modifications of the application, and prevents new installations from having to “allow” the app to run after download.

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug with sync database that attempted to change permissions on a file that doesn’t exist anymore.

  • Previously, users of Jungle Disk on macOS Mojave or later had to grant our application full disk access in order to back up any file in directories restricted by the OS. With this update, we will now prompt the user to grant access to specific directories that are part of a backup when it’s being configured or when a preexisting backup runs for the first time after updating

3.31.1 – Nov 15, 2019

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug in 3.31.0 that caused personal AWS S3 Online Disks to fail to connect due to an issue with authenticating requests. (Server, Desktop, and Simply Backup Edition).

3.31.0 – Nov 8, 2019

IMPROVEMENTS

  • For installations with no automatic backup configured, added a prompt to notify and easily configure one if needed.

  • Updated 3rd party dependencies to latest version. (OpenSSL, cURL, wxWidgets, ICU, Expat)

  • Updated the native file system driver on Windows to latest version. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Updated client to optimize throughput for all connection types by default, and removed the “optimize for high-bandwidth” checkbox in Network Settings as it’s now unnecessary.

  • Updated Windows installers to no longer require reboot after install. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Extended the functionality of Backup Cleanup Validation operations. Some customers may have experienced issues during Backup Cleanup, which is when data from storage older than the set retention period is cleaned out. Validation operations are designed to resolve those issues, and this release includes additional functionality around validating cleanups.

  • Added functionality to Backup Cleanup operations to remove unneeded data from backup databases.

FIXES

  • Fixed several bugs in the Setup Wizard/Configuration user interface.

  • Fixed a bug in Server Management connection screen that could cause the application to crash in certain situations when using the filter. (Server Edition)

  • Fixed Cleanup Validation scheduling bug, which would cause validation to happen on data that hadn’t been backed up yet. We fixed the order of those operations.

  • Fixed Windows installer bug for Server 2008. Microsoft introduced a security patch for Server 2008, which caused our Server Edition installers to not recognize that OS. This is now fixed.

  • Fixed Backup Database table schema to handle new Backup Cleanup Validation operations, and prevent some customers from getting a “database error” during cleanup validation.

  • Fixed a bug in Backup Cleanup operation that could cause operations to fail when expiring old data.

3.30.6 and 3.30.7 – Jan 11, 2019

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved Backup Vault cleanup performance

3.30.4 and 3.30.5 – Jan 9, 2019

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Optimized Backup Database indexing

  • Added Backup Vault Database operations to audit consistency across several tables

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug that caused Online Disk creation to fail when creating “Personal” Amazon S3 Online Disks (EU region) within the Setup Wizard and Configuration Menu (Server and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed a bug that caused an error when connecting “Personal” Amazon S3 (US region) Online Disks created within the Configuration Menu (Server and Desktop Edition).

3.30.2 and 3.30.3 – Dec 5, 2018

FIXES

  • Fixed and optimized various SQL statements for Backup Vault database

  • Disabled User Interface “dark mode” for macOS

3.30.1 – Sept 24, 2018

FIXES

  • Fixed bug in Windows Network Drive that could cause errors when saving documents to the network drive

3.30.0 – Sept 18, 2018

NEW FEATURES

  • Added support for Google Storage and set as default for new online disks.

  • Removed the option to create new Online Disks for Rackspace Cloud Files

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved progress display when Downloading, Decompressing and Verifying Backup Databases

  • Enhanced Backup Vault Cleanup operations and logic

  • Added support for internal configuration values

  • Updated End User License Agreement (EULA)

FIXES

  • Fixed several bugs in the Setup Wizard/Configuration User Interface

  • Adjusted timeout values on some HTTP requests

3.23.0 – Feb 16, 2018

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Various improvements for XML encoding and decoding

  • Updated default setting for Backup Reporting

  • Updated default Network Drive and Backup Vault retention periods to 95 days to standardize retention periods around a quarterly cycle

  • Removed “Show Advanced Options” switch in Configuration Menu, all options displayed now

  • Various Improvements to the Setup Wizard process

  • Improved error handling around Backup Vault Cleanup operations

  • Added “Cleanup Validation” operation feature that will periodically validate a Backup Vault’s Cleanup operations

  • Added Backup Vault “Event Reporting” feature that will report basic information about Backup Vault operation performance

FIXES

  • Fixed a bug in Backup Vault that would cause backup jobs to run over and over following the time change when Daylight Saving Time ends

  • Fixed a bug in Network Drive that caused uploads of files larger than 2 GB to fail (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

3.22

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved retry logic on storage GET requests

  • Updated CA Root Certificate – now using Mozilla’s

3.21

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Optimized all embedded database indexing

  • Added optional systemd scripts to Docs directory in Linux builds

  • All external HTTP requests now use HTTPS

  • All HTTP connections are now negotiated with only TLS 1.2

FIXES

  • Added a scrollbar to Network Drive mapping in Setup Wizard

  • Fixed some window sizing issues for Mac builds

  • Removed configuration option that would allow users to disable SSL/TLS connections

3.20

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved overall compatibility with latest OS releases

  • Updated all 3rd party dependencies (OpenSSL, cURL, wxWidgets, ICU, SQLite)

  • Improved system memory usage when using the Backup Vaults feature.

FIXES

  • Increased default setting for Network Drive upload retries from 3 to 6

  • Increased default setting for maximum file size saved to Network Drive Version Archive from 100 MB to 5000 MB

  • Renamed Legacy Backup to Simple Backup

  • Introduced new logos and branding

3.19

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved mapped network drive performance and reliability when using the native filesystem driver on Windows (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Updates to major libraries and dependencies: SQLite, OpenSSL (Server and Simply Backup Edition)

  • Updated Management Client icons/branding (Server Edition)

FIXES

  • Updated installer to configure local service to automatically restart in the event of failure (Workgroup, Desktop, and Simply Backup Edition)

  • Corrected issue in Sync Folders that could create duplicate folders if the remote folder name exceeded 25 characters and included spaces (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fix search/sort capabilities on Server Edition Management Client connection screen (Server Edition)

3.18

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Updates to major libraries and dependencies: SQLite, cURL, OpenSSL, wxWidgets

FIXES

  • Ended Development/Support for Linux Management Client – Server Edition Users can utilize either Mac or Windows Management Clients (Server Edition)

3.16

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved the installation experience on Ubuntu 11.04. Note that it is safe to proceed with installation if you receive a “The package is of bad quality” message. This is a known issue with Ubuntu (see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/software-center/+bug/712377 )

  • Reduced memory usage when executing a backup vault cleanup.

FIXES

  • Replaced installation automation scripts that were missing from the Mac version (Workgroup Edition)

  • Corrected an issue that could cause multiple system tray icons to appear in certain Linux distributions

  • Backup vault databases exceeding 4 GB in size on 32-bit Linux platforms no longer fail to upload

  • Cancelling an active backup now works properly when multiple online disks are connected

  • Corrected an issue that could cause missed backups to not execute, even when the “run missed backups as soon as possible” option was set

  • Corrected an issue that could cause scheduled backup jobs to occasionally run twice

3.14

NEW FEATURES

  • Jungle Disk now supports using Cygwin to browse a mapped network drive. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved mapped network drive performance and reliability when using the native filesystem driver on Windows. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved reliability of large file downloads from Amazon S3.

  • A local backup of the current Jungle Disk configuration is now saved if First Time Setup Wizard is started. This provides support personnel with the means to restore a user’s configuration if the setup wizard was launched by mistake.

  • Jungle Disk now properly allows the selection of multiple files when choosing files for public file sharing. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Backed-up symbolic links to directories are now visible in the restore dialog and can be individually selected.

  • Improved the user experience when restoring the backup vault of a different computer.

  • Adjusted the free space reported to Windows for mapped network drives to be more compatible with legacy utilities such as xcopy. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • The native file system driver used by Jungle Disk has been updated on Windows. This should improve network drive performance for Windows users. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved monitoring and configuration performance over high-latency connections. (Server Edition)

FIXES

  • Added a scrollbar to the list of secure disks that require a password during initial setup. Previously, if this list was longer than would fit on the screen there was no way to see every disk in order to provide a password to everyone. (Workgroup Edition)

  • Added scollbar to the list of available servers to ensure all servers are selectable (Server Edition)

  • For users accessing ServiceNet from servers within Rackspace’s data centers, Jungle Disk will now test for a working ServiceNet connection before setting the “Use ServiceNet” option.

  • Under certain circumstances, Jungle Disk could incorrectly back up extended attributes on for files on POSIX systems. This has now been fixed. (Workgroup, Server, and Desktop Edition)

  • Eliminated a segmentation fault error that occurred under certain rare circumstances on Linux. (Workgroup, Server, and Desktop Edition)

  • When multiple folders are selected and added to the restore list at the same time, Jungle Disk would not necessarily choose the appropriate restore destination. This has now been fixed.

  • Improved the bandwith limiting feature to make the actual bandwith more closely reflect the chosen value.

  • Fixed excessive memory usage on Windows when performing wild-card directory listings on the network drive, or when browsing the drive with Windows Explorer over a long period of time without restarting the computer. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • The Jungle Disk Desktop Edition installer now automatically shuts down the Jungle Disk monitor when upgrading a previous installation on Windows.

3.13

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Improved memory usage during backup jobs. (Server Edition)

FIXES

  • Fixed remote management communication errors. (Server Edition)

3.12

NEW FEATURES

  • Jungle Disk customers can share files with other individuals, including those who are not Jungle Disk subscribers. You can select a file for sharing in web access, within a Network Drive, or in your OS by right-clicking the file. Linux users also need to download nautilus-jungledisk to share files directly from their OS. This feature is only available on gnome-based desktop environments. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • A new share management page is available at jungledisk.com to manage expiration dates and view the number of downloads. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • The Server edition now includes a search box and added fields, to make it easier to find the server you’d like to connect to when your account contains large numbers of them.

  • The Backup Vault cleanup operation is now selectable in Server Edition as well (it was previously activated for Desktop and Workgroup users).

  • Sub account users can now change their own passwords. An option to enable or disable this capability is available to master account holders via the control panel. (Workgroup Edition)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • The network drive functionality on Windows now has better performance, resolving a few issues reported by our users in the support forums. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved the detection of changed files when using the compatibility bucket format, and when using the “Network Drive” disk type on Windows XP. (Workgroup Edition)

  • Improved the compression algorithm used by backup vault databases. Some users may experience a conversion process when Jungle Disk detects that the new algorithm needs to be utilized.

  • Improved robustness and reliability when using backup vaults. Some additional diagnostic capabilities were added during backup cleanups, and extra checking is now performed to ensure that a safety copy of the backup database is uploaded to cloud storage.

  • Improved performance relating to detecting network connections and proxy servers on startup.

FIXES

  • Corrected an issue that caused backup exclusions and nested folders to work incorrectly in some circumstances. Also improved performance with the backup reporting feature.

  • The ~VersionArchive folder is now hidden from view.

3.08

NEW FEATURES

  • Users can now select multiple directory folders at the same time in the restore dialog to add to the current restore list.

  • Server edition users can now press a “Change Server” button on the Management client, which returns you to the list of available servers.

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Jungle disk is now better at detecting Internet connectivity problems and taking appropriate action when entering offline mode.

  • Backup Vault operations now run at a lower system priority so that other programs are less likely to be slowed down when a backup is running.

  • Jungle Disk now has an improved ability to automatically detect and repair invalid backup vault data.

  • Vault-based backups should run slightly faster, especially when backing up large numbers of files.

FIXES

  • The remaining bullets below apply to Version 3.07

  • Resolved an issue that could lead to the corruption of backup vault databases when the user’s machine runs out of disk space.

  • Resolved an issue which could cause an entire backup database to be re-uploaded after a backup cleanup operation. Now only the changed portion of the database will be uploaded.

  • Corrected an issue that could cause very large backup previews to end without displaying a file list.

  • The “What to Back Up” dialog now correctly displays the total backup size when backup directories are removed from the list.

  • Corrected an issue that sometimes resulted in “Can’t open file” error messages on Windows.

  • Some Windows users experienced a slowdown when using the Legacy WebDAV mode for their mapped online disk. This is related to a Windows proxy settings bug. You can resolve it using this guide: http://oddballupdate.com/2009/12/18/fix-slow-webdav-performance-in-windows-7/ (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • On Windows, Jungle Disk will now only try to send notifications to Growl and Snarl when it detects they are running. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Corrected an issue that could lead to a program crash in the Server Edition Management Client

  • Corrected an issue that prevented the creation of online disks for usernames of two characters or less. (Simply Backup Edition)

3.06

FIXES

  • Certain Backup Vault operations, such as taking over a vault from another computer, can cause files to become stranded in the backup because the backup job that enumerates them (and allows the files to be cleaned up when Jungle Disk detects their deletion) is not necessarily present on the new computer. In these cases, Jungle Disk will automatically mark these files to be deleted after 60 days. This ensures that the files will eventually be cleaned up, but still provides plenty of time to restore them if they are needed.

  • A new compression method was introduced in 3.05, which caused some users to experience larger-than-normal upload sizes when their backup databases were stored on the cloud. This issue is now resolved, and only the changed portions of backup databases are uploaded.

  • Resolved an issue that could prevent users from seeing changes to the network drive or sync folders that originated on other computers. Prior to this change, users sometimes had to disable and re-enable sync to see these changes. (Workgroup Edition)

  • Resolved an issue that could prevent Jungle Disk activity monitor from recognizing that its background service was running under certain circumstances.

  • Resolved an issue that could cause come Windows applications to hang when opening file browser dialogs.

  • Resolved an issue that could cause backup previews to generate a Failed to attach Backup Search Database error.

  • Sync folders manually entered with a name starting with sync will no longer cause an issue in Jungle Disk (Workgroup Edition)

  • Windows users upgrading from previous versions of Jungle Disk may find their network drives appearing as a “Disconnected Network Share”. If this occurs, an additional system reboot may be necessary in order to allow the underlying driver to complete its installation. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Resolved an issue that could cause files to be re-uploaded during a legacy backup, regardless of whether they changed or not. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Linux users will now experience more accurate create and modified timestamps on their network drives. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

3.05

NEW FEATURES

  • Windows users can now choose not to configure an online disk as a network drive during the setup wizard. (Workgroup Edition)

  • Jungle Disk now supports “One-Way” sync. You can sync files and folders from your network drive to your local volume, and vice-versa, without a requirement to sync them in both directions. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Jungle Disk will now show sync status overlay icons for files on removable media devices. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Jungle Disk now compresses some gateway communication in order to significantly reduce latency for operations resulting in large amounts of data passing between the management client and server. Note that this feature requires that the Server and Management clients be upgraded simultaneously. (Server Edition)

  • Added a configuration option that allows all users to see a network drive under Linux.

  • Added support for Growl and Snarl notifications on Windows, and libNotify notifications on Linux. These features can send messages to your desktop when events associated with Jungle Disk occur.

  • Added the ability to schedule a backup vault cleanup as soon as possible from the monitor’s online disk menu.

  • On Windows, users can now choose to map their online disks to a virtual network share instead of a local removable media device in order to give a better experience when browsing the online disk in Windows Explorer.

  • Restored the Linux command line utility that existed in pre-3.0 versions of Jungle Disk. Run jungledisk –help for details.

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Reduced the refresh interval when displaying files in Windows, which prevents interference when renaming files. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Removed the requirement to pause and resume sync in order to initiate sync on external drives and other volumes that were not present when Jungle Disk was started. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Dramatically improved reliability when adding folders containing large numbers of files to a backup job. (Server Edition)

  • Improved Proxy Server support. (Server Edition)

  • Improved network drive performance on Linux.

  • On Windows the network drive has been optimized to perform better with large files, especially ones that are frequently changed.

  • On Windows, the default directories for Microsoft Outlook, Windows Mail, and Windows Live Mail are now more accurate.

FIXES

  • Eliminated an error that could cause Jungle Disk to become unresponsive when Syncing an entire drive on Windows. (Workgroup Desktop Edition)

  • OneNote Table Of Contents.onetoc2 files are no longer ignored by sync. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Reduced error conditions resulting in “Sync Database is Locked” messages. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Reduced errors when syncing files that have filenames containing diacritics (such as accent marks, dieresis or enyays) (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Resolved an issue on Windows which could cause a “Sync Pending” status icon to show up on files excluded from sync. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Corrected a condition that could prevent data from getting removed from a Backup Vault if a backup was canceled or aborted.

  • Corrected a condition which could result in “SQL Logic Error” messages after a backup was canceled or aborted.

  • Corrected an error that prevented backup jobs from running correctly on some non-English versions of Windows.

  • Corrected an issue that caused files and folders in the Backup Vault restore dialog to appear unsorted.

  • Corrected an issue that could lead to application startup delays when running in standalone mode.

  • Corrected an issue which could cause erroneous “Another Instance is already running” errors.

  • Eliminated “string encoding” warnings when a system drive contained international characters in the drive label.

  • Resolved an issue that could cause individual files to become corrupted during a backup, if the previous backup job was canceled.

  • The configuration dialog now opens without excessive delays when Jungle Disk is offline.

  • When using bandwidth limiting, Jungle Disk is now less likely to burst over the specified limit on uploads.

3.04

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Increased the timeout associated with gathering folders to restore. Affects very large restore sets.

  • Searching large sync directories for files to update is now faster. (Workgroup, Server and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved performance when mounting and unmounting network drives on Linux platforms. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • On Mac, improved detection of sync folders on a volume that is no longer mounted. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Servers now appear much more quickly in the Management Interface selection list. (Server Edition)

FIXES

  • Reduced error message verbosity when some some language/region combinations are missing on Mac platforms.

  • Corrected an issue that could cause file timestamps to be incorrect when copying files to network drives on Windows. (Workgroup, Server and Desktop Edition)

  • When using bandwidth limiting, Jungle Disk is now less likely to burst over the specified limit on uploads.

  • Saving Excel files resulted in occasional xParentNotFound errors. This has been corrected. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Corrected an issue that could cause Jungle Disk to become unresponsive when changing mount points on Linux platforms. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Corrected an error that caused Network Drives to fail to appear on some Windows installations. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Corrected an issue that could prevent the creation of an online disk during the configuration process. (Server Edition)

3.02

NEW FEATURES

  • New usage statistics for Backup Vaults available in the configuration dialog

  • Fixed a problem when backing up symlinks that pointed to files with extended attributes on Linux. (Workgroup, Server and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed possible CSRF exploit in local web interface (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Sync will now allow you to sync hidden folders on Windows (unless they are also flagged as “system”, such as the Recycle Bin). (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Server Management client now supports HTTP proxies. (Server Edition)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Error details now include time zone information.

  • The monitor window can now be minimized and maximized.

  • More intelligent syncing of a file over a folder and vice-versa. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved the display of the sync folder configuration dialog across all platforms. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

FIXES

  • Fixed SSL certificate root authority verification

  • Corrected an error that resulted in an xAssertionFailed message when restoring one or a few files greater than 50 MB in size.

  • Fixed a problem that would prevent startup if the gateway server could not be connected to.

  • Fixed a bug that caused unnecessary logging of xSettingsPasswordInvalid error.

  • Fixed an issue that could lead to lengthy delays when adding a large block backup folder to a restore job.

  • Installing JD will no longer cause Windows Explorer to take longer than expected when browsing “My Computer” (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Jungle Disk will no longer schedule a cleanup operation if the previous backup did not complete successfully. This prevents data from partially-completed backups from being destroyed until a successful backup takes place.

  • Corrected an error when Syncing on Windows, which could cause sync to stop working until restarting the Jungle Disk service. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • When syncing standard Mac folders like Movies, Music, and Pictures, the custom folder icon is now preserved when adding the Jungle Disk sync badge. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed crash in setup wizard when selecting a read-only online disk as the destination for backups. (Workgroup Edition)

  • When trying to restore from a legacy (JD1.0) online disk or compatibility disk, JD monitor would fail with the message “xNotImplemented”). (Desktop Edition)

3.01

IMPROVEMENTS

  • The Configure toolbar item is now shown even when Jungle Disk is not connected to the internet, allowing the user to update their proxy settings.

  • Jungle Disk now has an expanded list of system and hidden files that will be automatically excluded from sync. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Improved error messaging when a user with access to no online disks runs the setup wizard. (Workgroup Edition)

FIXES

  • Large Restore operations now complete successfully without “Assert Failed” messages on selected files.

  • Windows files containing alternate data streams are now backed up and restored correctly.

  • Files with different timestamps will now only be synced if the file content has actually changed. (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Drive letters are now correctly assigned in the setup wizard on Windows platforms. (Workgroup Edition)

  • A “Finder settings change” message is no longer shown on Mac. (Server Edition)

3.00

NEW FEATURES

  • A new multi-way Sync feature that allows you to synchronize folders on your local computer with your cloud-based network drive, and with local folders on other computers (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • An all new backup engine, built on the same technology we created for the Server Edition, and incorporating features such as compression, de-duplication, and large file support (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Ability for Workgroup Administrators to lock-down the functionality available to their users (Workgroup Edition Only)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Faster notifications of changes on your network drive made from other computers (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

2.62b

NEW FEATURES

  • Added support for restoring to password protected network shares (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

IMPROVEMENTS

  • Added impersonation support to improve compatibility of network share backup (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

FIXES

  • Fixed network drive mounting on OSX 10.6 (Snow Leopard) (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed XML parsing issue on Linux that resulted in RPC error messages (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed possible segfault on shutdown in Linux (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed possible Windows Explorer hang on network drive (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

  • Fixed move/rename of files with incorrect case on Windows (Workgroup and Desktop Edition)

Open Source

Jungle Disk makes use of several excellent open source libraries. In compliance with the associated license agreements we have provided links to the copyright / license information and original source code below.

The post Release Notes: Jungle Disk Backup Software appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-release-notes/feed/ 0 CyberFortress Announces 24×7 Support for Global Data Backup and Recovery Services https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-announces-24x7-support-for-global-data-backup-and-recovery-services/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-announces-24x7-support-for-global-data-backup-and-recovery-services/#respond Thu, 01 Dec 2022 20:00:32 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1758 Customers Across Globe Able to Reach the CyberFortress Recovery People™ via Phone and Email at Any Time on Any Day of the Year SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, November 29, 2022 – CyberFortress, a global provider of managed data backups built to prevent business disruption through rapid recovery, today announced that the company is now providing 24×7 […]

The post <strong>CyberFortress Announces 24×7 Support for Global Data Backup and Recovery Services</strong> appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> Customers Across Globe Able to Reach the CyberFortress Recovery People™ via Phone and Email at Any Time on Any Day of the Year

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS, November 29, 2022 – CyberFortress, a global provider of managed data backups built to prevent business disruption through rapid recovery, today announced that the company is now providing 24×7 live support for all backup and recovery products and services.

CyberFortress has long been committed to ensuring its customers can recover their data fast and minimize downtime. Now, by leveraging its global presence to provide 24×7 support every day of the year, customers are assured personalized support from an internal CyberFortress credentialed, dedicated recovery specialist whenever they call or email. 

CyberFortress provides a complete suite of solutions and services to meet all of an organization’s backup and recovery needs, including:

  • Endpoint Backup & Recovery: Advanced endpoint protection and recovery for laptops and desktops no matter where they are physically located
  • Managed Backup as a Service, Powered by Ahsay (BaaS): A powerful fully managed solution that makes data backup and recovery simple and fast for small businesses
  • Managed Backup as a Service, Powered by Asigra (BaaS): Ultra secure data backup and recovery for the  advanced security and compliance that sensitive data requires
  • Managed Cloud Backup as a Service, Powered by Veeam (BaaS): A fully managed Veeam cloud backup software solution that protects companies  against normal data loss and downtime
  • Managed Disaster Recovery as a Service, Powered by Veeam (DRaaS): A fully managed Veeam disaster recovery solution that protects companies during times of disaster
  • SaaS Backup & Recovery:  Specialized to restore SaaS data in case of service outage, cyberattack or data deletion
  • Server Backup & Recovery Software: Enables server backups every 15 minutes or less for painless recovery, even for bare metal

“We were having the issue that our backups weren’t following our  retention policies,” said Brandon Coleman, system admin for Heart Southern Missions. “CyberFortress was fantastic. The issue ended up being on our end, and they not only helped identify it, but fixed it so that we now have 360 restore points from bi-hourly backups. I got a specialist on the line the first time I called, and we couldn’t have asked for stronger support.”

“When a business needs to recover data, no one wants to wait until business hours roll back around to talk to a human being,” said John Garza, Vice President Customer Experience at CyberFortress. “At CyberFortress, anyone who needs support will get hold of an internal recovery specialist immediately — not someone who’s just taking messages or an outsourced support company — they’ll speak with an expert at CyberFortress. We’re the recovery people, and if a customer needs our help, we’re going to be there, every hour of every day of the year.

About CyberFortress

CyberFortress is a global company that makes it simple to fully backup and rapidly recover all lost or stolen data to prevent damage and disruption to organizations of all sizes. Data is stored in secure, geo-redundant facilities, and our suite of solutions enables our data recovery specialists to create a custom, comprehensive solution for each customer. Whenever a customer needs data recovery, they receive live, personalized support from a credentialed specialist, every hour of every day of the year.

CyberFortress is based in San Antonio, Texas. For more information, contact us today.

The post <strong>CyberFortress Announces 24×7 Support for Global Data Backup and Recovery Services</strong> appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/cyberfortress-announces-24x7-support-for-global-data-backup-and-recovery-services/feed/ 0 Webinar: 2023 Data Protection Trends https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-2023-data-protection-trends-12-14/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-2023-data-protection-trends-12-14/#respond Mon, 21 Nov 2022 14:25:49 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1731 https://youtu.be/nRN8S9pKxZE On-Demand Webinar Veeam & CyberFortress present “2023 Data Protection Trends”  Presentation by: Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam and Nathan Anderson, Chief Technology Officer, CyberFortress Topic: Data protection YOY trends and 2023 data protection resolutions. Globally Sourced Data: 23 Countries & 4300 Peers Learn the highlights and shifts in data protection that will impact […]

The post Webinar: 2023 Data Protection Trends appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

On-Demand Webinar

Veeam & CyberFortress present “2023 Data Protection Trends” 

Presentation by: Dave Russell, Vice President, Enterprise Strategy, Veeam and Nathan Anderson, Chief Technology Officer, CyberFortress

Topic: Data protection YOY trends and 2023 data protection resolutions.

Globally Sourced Data: 23 Countries & 4300 Peers

Learn the highlights and shifts in data protection that will impact 2023. Gain exposure to Veeam best practice methodologies to help shape your data protection initiatives and decision framework. 

Uptick in Threats – Decrease in Finances: The Perfect Storm 

As threats continue to rise and budgets become constrained, cybercriminals look to exploit  vulnerabilities. Prepare for “CAT 5” data destruction as ransomware hits continue to surge, showing no sign of slowing down and sparing no entities. 

Across experts, analysts and operators, the collective thinking has shifted towards the “not if, but when” a cyber-attack will occur, agreeing a cyber-resilient operation is key to cyber-recovery. Do not be collateral damage to crimes of opportunity, register and be ready for the fail-over.

Key Takeaways:

  • Get global peer viewpoints on the data protection landscape 
    • 2022 vs 2023 ransomware data is significantly alarming
    • Recession impacts are not immaterial to planning
  • Hear data recovery guidance from industry experts
    • Rent vs buy data protection expertise
    • Options that work for your data protection requirements
  • Prepare a value driven data protection plan &  recovery outcome
    • Avoid being inside the wide ransomware net
    • Be confident in your RPTOs
  • Plus, more real world 2023 cyber-recovery insights

Register NOW, if you cannot attend, we will send you the webinar recording & early access to the Veeam 2023 Data Protection Report.

Watch Now

Spoiler Alert: Pre-release 2023 survey insights revealed!

The post Webinar: 2023 Data Protection Trends appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-2023-data-protection-trends-12-14/feed/ 0 Should You Pay the Ransom for Ransomware? Protect Against Threats Today https://cyberfortress.com/blog/should-you-pay-the-ransom-for-ransomware/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/should-you-pay-the-ransom-for-ransomware/#respond Fri, 18 Nov 2022 03:12:01 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1725 The worst has happened. A month ago, someone in your organization clicked on a link or replied to a request in a very clever spear phishing email, which allowed a cybercriminal enterprise to bury malware deep into your network. For weeks, that malware has been quietly worming its way through your network, moving laterally across […]

The post Should You Pay the Ransom for Ransomware? Protect Against Threats Today appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

The worst has happened. A month ago, someone in your organization clicked on a link or replied to a request in a very clever spear phishing email, which allowed a cybercriminal enterprise to bury malware deep into your network. For weeks, that malware has been quietly worming its way through your network, moving laterally across the environment into every data source you have, including those in the cloud. And for weeks, it went undetected.

That all changed today. The cybercriminal syndicate sent the malware a signal, which caused it to rapidly encrypt all of your data. Systems stopped working, the environment began locking up. All you have now is a text file that contains a ransom note with a deadline of 48 hours and an address where you are to send a substantial amount of money in the form of cryptocurrency.

Thankfully, you have backups. They were securely stored in another domain, with access protected by multi-factor authentication. A quick search of the logs shows the cybercriminals attempted to access them, but failed because they didn’t have access to other factors. The backups are safe. So you breathe a sigh of relief.

The problem with recovery

Then the other shoe drops. IT tells you that they expect it will take two to three weeks just to get critical systems back online. To get the whole operation back to normal? That could take at least a month. Maybe longer.

How could this happen? Unfortunately, it’s all too common:

    • IT didn’t test for a full recovery: Sure, they had a plan on paper, but it was written two years ago and hasn’t been updated. The network has changed significantly since then.

    • Dependencies aren’t fully understood: Because the plan is out of date, IT needs to reconstruct the order in which applications and data need to be restored. If the order is wrong, applications won’t work properly, if at all.

    • Backup rehydration and transfer is slow: While IT knew it could meet RTOs for discrete applications and data, they never simulated a complete recovery, and it turns out recovery will take far longer than expected.

    • Backups can’t be guaranteed to be malware free: The organization’s oldest full backup was just three weeks ago … which was after infection took place.

    • Not all data was backed up: Turns out, when a couple of new VMs were added to the environment, they never got added to the backup queue.

Being down for two to three weeks would be catastrophic. There’s a massive loss of revenue, of course. And it would also dramatically harm customer relationships, perhaps even causing the company to lose a significant number of accounts. The damage to the business would be severe.

With the encryption key, you could probably decrypt all the data in less than a week. And a couple million dollars in ransom is less than the many, many millions that it will cost you to be down completely for up to three weeks, and only partially operational for over a month. So, paying ransom seems to be the most reasonable option, right?

The downside of paying ransom

Not necessarily. Before paying ransom, consider the following:

1. There’s no guarantee that the cybercriminals will provide the key: Certainly, they have incentive to do so — no one will pay ransom if they don’t believe they’ll get the key — but these are criminals. If they don’t give you the key, what are you going to do? Sue them?

2. You establish your organization as a good target: Pay ransom once, and you’ll earn yourself a reputation as a good target who can be compromised and will pay up. At least one study has shown that 80% of companies that pay ransom find themselves under attack again, sometimes by the very same criminal gang. After all, if they’ve penetrated your defenses once, they can probably do so again. They may even have additional ransomware that remains undetected in your network.

So, what are you to do? Well, once you’re in the situation above, there are no good answers. The best response is to ensure that you never face this kind of dilemma.

So, make sure that your organization is prepared for a full recovery. Regularly audit your environment to make sure you’re actually backing everything up. Create a full recovery plan and update it regularly. Ensure your team has a clear understanding of everyone’s role during a full recovery and the priority order for application and data restoration. And, most importantly, conduct regular tests including a full simulation so that, when it comes time to recover, this won’t be your team’s first time doing so.

Protect Your Organization From Ransomware

At CyberFortress, our experts have done dozens of full restores, where most IT professionals have done, at most, one over their entire careers. We’re dedicated to ensuring that you never have to worry about facing the terrible dilemma described above. If you are interested in taking the next steps against ransomware, contact CyberFortress today! We’d love to discuss how we can help you prepare so that a ransomware attack doesn’t become the worst day of your IT career.

Watch our on demand webinar: Modern Ransomware, the Gift that Keeps on Taking to learn more proactive approaches to ensure your data can be restored to a usable state in a timely manner.

The post Should You Pay the Ransom for Ransomware? Protect Against Threats Today appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/should-you-pay-the-ransom-for-ransomware/feed/ 0 Protecting Microsoft 365 Data With Veeam https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-microsoft-365-data-with-veeam/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-microsoft-365-data-with-veeam/#respond Wed, 16 Nov 2022 16:46:44 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1711 Microsoft 365 is a critical SaaS application in remote and in-person workplaces. The data stored is often vital to running many businesses’ day-to-day operations. How does your company protect that valuable asset? CyberFortress protects that data with a backup-as-a-service (BaaS) offering, powered by Veeam. However, do you need to backup Microsoft 365? Let’s explore what […]

The post Protecting Microsoft 365 Data With Veeam appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

Microsoft 365 is a critical SaaS application in remote and in-person workplaces. The data stored is often vital to running many businesses’ day-to-day operations. How does your company protect that valuable asset? CyberFortress protects that data with a backup-as-a-service (BaaS) offering, powered by Veeam. However, do you need to backup Microsoft 365? Let’s explore what can happen if you don’t, and the benefits of our new offering.

What Happens If You Don’t Backup Microsoft 365?

Let’s say someone deletes key documents for an important quarterly report. Microsoft automatically deletes all data in the recycle bin after 30 days, so if it’s not backed up, it’s gone for good. And in this example, it’s likely no one will notice they were accidentally trashed until they start working on the report, well after the 30-day retention period has passed. 

But it can be even worse. If a rogue employee deletes emails and documents to cover up illegal activity, when their acts come to light and e-discovery begins, the company could find itself in legal hot water.  That’s why considering data backup for Microsoft 365 is key. 

Benefits of Protecting Your Microsoft Data

Like many SaaS vendors, Microsoft’s SaaS-based office suite operates under a shared responsibility model. Microsoft ensures its service infrastructure is secure and that the application remains available. By protecting your data in case of a catastrophic failure or disaster, you prevent losing valuable information, time spent on recovery, and more.

How to Protect Microsoft 365 with Veeam

Here at CyberFortress, we know how vital protecting your data is in an increasingly remote environment. We just made it even easier for you to use our service. Our self-service Microsoft 365 Restore Portal makes it simpler to find exactly the files you need. You can bring files you need back to life with enhanced search and streamlined processes. Get the insights you need with key statistics on backup duration, read-write rates, and other KPIs.

CyberFortress is a Veeam Platinum Partner, and we deliver Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. You can set up retention policies for storage, recover granularly and secure access to backups with multi-factor authentication. The service can also protect data in hybrid environments, and even easily migrate mailbox data between on-premises and SaaS.

SaaS data deserves the same level of protection as on-premises data, and we’ve made it even easier to do so for Microsoft 365 with our latest update.

Interested in learning more? Get in touch!

The post Protecting Microsoft 365 Data With Veeam appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/protecting-microsoft-365-data-with-veeam/feed/ 0 Webinar: Ransomware Protection with Veeam https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-ransomware-protection-with-veeam/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-ransomware-protection-with-veeam/#respond Fri, 14 Oct 2022 21:00:36 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1598 It’s more important than ever for companies to seek ransomware protection. More than five times each minute, there’s a ransomware attack on a business, according to current research from Veeam. And while the network should be hardened and employees should be trained to reduce the risk of ransomware penetrating a company’s defenses, ultimately, it’s not […]

The post Webinar: Ransomware Protection with Veeam appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

It’s more important than ever for companies to seek ransomware protection. More than five times each minute, there’s a ransomware attack on a business, according to current research from Veeam. And while the network should be hardened and employees should be trained to reduce the risk of ransomware penetrating a company’s defenses, ultimately, it’s not a question of whether a company will be successfully attacked. It’s a question of when.

Backup is the last line of defense against ransomware. Cybercriminals are well aware, so they target the backups to ensure they are useless for recovery. Organizations must protect their backups at all costs. Below, learn more about Veeam’s suite of offerings for ransomware protection, and how you can arm your company for the worst-case scenario.

Ransomware: The Gift that Keeps On Taking

Even if the backups are protected, they won’t do an organization much good if recovery is slow. The damage done by extended downtime could mean it may be faster and, ultimately, cheaper to pay the ransom, assuming the cybercriminals turn over the encryption key. Of course, paying the ransom gives you a strong reputation in the underworld as a good mark — four out of five companies that pay ransom are attacked again later and it’s frequently the same cybercriminals who took them down the first time. This means you’ll be targeted again and again by criminal gangs that already know your network’s weaknesses … and may still have additional ransomware hidden inside your environment, ready to go off and put you through the wringer once again. 

CyberFortress presented a webinar with Veeam’s Rick Vanover on Oct. 18 at 11am ET: Modern Ransomware: The Gift that Keeps on Taking. In the webinar, the panelists went into much more detail about how to protect your backups and, just as important, how to ensure you can recover quickly. There, we focused on backup protection, but you can’t neglect the second half of the equation — fast recovery is essential, and the webinar will provided best practices to enable it.

Secure Your Data Backups from Ransomware Threats

The absolute best way to protect your data backups is to create a physical “air gap” between the backup copy and your network, so there’s no way malware can infect the data. Usually, this means you’ve got a tape backup stored somewhere offline. But remember, if you can’t restore rapidly enough, it’s nearly as bad as having no backup at all, and recovery from tape is usually pretty slow.

Thankfully, IT can emulate a physical air gap while keeping backups online. First, make sure backups are stored on a different workgroup or domain than the production environment. If they’re stored alongside everything else, the backups will likely get encrypted during an attack. Additionally, you can store the backups in an immutable format, which prevents them from being encrypted, and set up a soft delete, which puts a copy in a “recycle bin” first instead of deleting the data outright.

Further, make sure that access to backups is secure and tightly controlled. Relying on passwords alone is simply asking for trouble, because it sets up a single point of failure. If passwords are generated by users, they’re often easily guessed or cracked by algorithms, and even if they are sufficiently strong, social engineering, clever phishing attempts, and other forms of malware can obtain them. IT should employ strong multi-factor authentication to ensure that only authorized users can access backup files.

Finally, while you should encrypt your data backups — there’s sensitive information stored in them that needs to be protected from prying eyes — if you don’t properly manage the encryption key, you will do the cybercriminals’ work for them. For example, if the key is stored in the production network and the production environment is encrypted in a ransomware attack, you can no longer decrypt your own backup files. Store it in a secure service that’s on a completely different domain. 

There’s much more to know about protecting your backups from ransomware attacks and setting yourself up for a rapid recovery in the event you are hit. If you’d like to learn more, sign up to receive the recording of the Modern Ransomware: The Gift that Keeps on Taking. You’ll learn: 

  • The current state of ransomware attacks and their impact on recovery and resiliency
  • What aspects of your data protection strategy aren’t up to speed to attain resilience
  • How to best use the cloud proactively to ensure resilience from even the most devastating ransomware attack and prove your data protection strategy WORKS

Hosted by Nick Cavalancia, 4-time Microsoft MVP at Conversational Geek, panelists will include:

  • Rick Vanover, Senor Director of Product Strategy at Veeam
  • Jonah May, Solutions Architect at CyberFortress and a member of the Veeam Vanguard
  • Vince Wood, Senior Systems Administrator at CyberFortress and a vExpert

To receive the recording, click here: https://protect.cyberfortress.com/internal/webinar/ransomware. 

The post Webinar: Ransomware Protection with Veeam appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/webinar-ransomware-protection-with-veeam/feed/ 0 AI-Powered Cybercrime Poses Major Threats to Your Company Data https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ceobretpiattspresentationattechconnectlive/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ceobretpiattspresentationattechconnectlive/#respond Wed, 21 Sep 2022 18:27:19 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1478 The following blog is based on a presentation the CEO of CyberFortress recently delivered at TechConnect Live, Ireland’s largest business and technology exhibition.   Cybercrime is at an all-time high, and ransomware has emerged as one of the most pervasive — and disastrous— threats. Every 11 seconds, another business experiences a ransomware attack, according to […]

The post AI-Powered Cybercrime Poses Major Threats to Your Company Data appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

The following blog is based on a presentation the CEO of CyberFortress recently delivered at TechConnect Live, Ireland’s largest business and technology exhibition.

 

Cybercrime is at an all-time high, and ransomware has emerged as one of the most pervasive — and disastrous— threats. Every 11 seconds, another business experiences a ransomware attack, according to current research from Veeam. Successful cybercrime strikes can paralyze an organization, harming not only its sensitive company data, but also its bottom line and reputation. Even companies that reluctantly fork over the ransom aren’t guaranteed a full data recovery. Victims that pay up have a one-in-three chance that they won’t get back all their company data.  

 

Hackers manage to penetrate defenses by targeting vulnerabilities such as upgrades and missed software patches. Increasingly, they’re using artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning  (ML) and deep learning (DL) to power their attacks. This trend has serious implications for data protection in general and backups in particular. It’s worth digging a little deeper into AI, ML and DL to understand how cybercriminals are weaponizing these technologies and learn how to defend against these cybersecurity threats.

The Tech and Tools Involved

AI is a general term that refers to any machine or software that completes tasks that would ordinarily require human intelligence. At the outset, tic-tac-toe programs were considered a form of AI, but those days are long gone. Today, AI is usually applied to much more challenging tasks like natural language processing (NLP) or beating a professional Go player. AI is typically very good at doing narrow tasks, but it requires a lot of training even for those.

Machine learning is a subset of AI that can adapt and improve, typically with a bit of human help. It’s often used for image and voice recognition, understanding text and NLP. This technology enables everything from virtual assistants such as Siri to chatbots, and from streaming services’ video recommendations to spam filters.

Deep learning is a subset of ML. It uses a multi-layered neural network to mimic the way human minds learn, and it does so without human intervention. One of the early applications of ML was AlphaGo, which made history by beating a Go world champion in a tournament. Deep learning is used in autonomous vehicles, popularly known as self-driving cars, which rely on it to collect and analyze data, make decisions and perform actions a human driver would normally handle.

Applications of AI in Cyberattacks

While AI powers many invaluable, worthwhile advances, it also helps cybercriminals do their work more efficiently. Hackers use AI primarily to get inside an organization’s network. They generally do that through “social engineering” — more specifically, an automated version of it. Previously, a human being would have to research targets and somehow trick them into revealing credentials or taking actions that would give the hackers access to the network. Now, however, hackbots can impersonate human beings and reach out to targets via SMS or instant message and on Internet forums which have become one of hackers most trusted tools when performing AI cyberattacks on businesses.

Spear phishing is one of the strategies bad actors employ. The AI collects and correlates information on a target to create a credible email. For example, a spear phishing AI might learn from the web that I was scheduled to give a talk in Dublin on Sept. 13. It would then create an email that appears to be from me, asking someone in my organization to take a specific action while I was at the Dublin conference. That action would allow ransomware to infiltrate the network.

Social media phishing is another criminal application for AI. An AI-powered social media profile entices readers to click malicious links. For example, a hacker could reach out through Facebook Messenger or create a fake Instagram page to trick users into providing log-in information. Once AI captures their credentials, hackers can take over the victim’s accounts, see if the credentials work for financial accounts, network with their friends and so on.

In addition to social engineering, hackers rely on AI network scanners. They can either cast a wide net, trolling the Internet, or zeroing in on an organization to probe a specific network. These scanners are continually scanning for known vulnerabilities — the previously mentioned upgrades or unpatched software — that a hacker can exploit.

Software testers are another ploy. These AIs use ML techniques to discover vulnerabilities in software, both commercial and open source. Such discoveries make it very easy for hackers to execute zero-day vulnerability attacks before the software is patched. Google’s Project Zero detected 18 exploited zero-days vulnerabilities in the first half of 2022, half of them related to known ones that were not fully patched.

What This Means for Cybersecurity

With company cybersecurity threats increasing in number and severity, security awareness is more crucial than ever. There are several steps organizations should take to combat the growing danger.

Mandate security training: Every user is a potential chink in the armor, so require all employees to undergo security training. In fact, a 2021 survey showed that more than half (56%) of employees received no cybersecurity training within the last year.

Training programs vary greatly, so research the options. Look for a quality program with demonstrated effectiveness. This is critical, so don’t let price be the top deciding factor. A good program tests with lifelike scenarios so employees can better recognize threats when they encounter them. For example, at CyberFortress, we create realistic phishing emails from company officers and send them to employees. This gives them an idea of what the threat looks like and helps them learn how to handle them.

Protect credentials: Passwords are generally the first line of defense, but those generated by users are often too weak, simple or reused or shared with others. Best practices require system-generated passwords combined with a good password manager, supplemented by multi-factor authentication.

Patch immediately: With hackers constantly probing for vulnerabilities, fixing holes in your systems every 30 days isn’t enough. Develop a program for rapid patch deployment to address vulnerabilities ASAP.

Back up strategically: Comprehensive backup is the key to recovery. Almost all attackers try to destroy or encrypt backup repositories so victims can’t recover without paying up. To avoid that, encrypt your backups to protect sensitive data and make backups read-only so they can’t be encrypted by malicious code during ransomware attacks.

Design the system for rapid recovery: Backups do you little good if it takes 60 days to recover from a ransomware attack. The disruption to operations and financial losses during that time could easily outweigh the price of the ransom. Don’t wait for disaster to hit to see if your recovery strategy is effective. Test the system to make sure it works as expected.

The experiences of big companies like Colonial Pipeline underscore these points. Even though the company had backups, they paid the ransom. They realized that recovery would have taken too long and caused far more financial damage than paying the ransom to get up and running more quickly.

Conclusion

Threats are growing more sophisticated thanks to AI and ML-powered attacks. Organizations must take them seriously and institute good cybersecurity practices to defend against them. CyberFortress can help by providing secure, rapid data recovery solutions.

Interested in learning more? Check out this video of Bret’s recent presentation at TechConnect in Dublin!

Back To All Documents

The post AI-Powered Cybercrime Poses Major Threats to Your Company Data appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ceobretpiattspresentationattechconnectlive/feed/ 0 Ultra-secure Backup & Recovery for SMB, Enterprises & Sensitive Data https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ultra-secure-backup-recovery-for-smb-enterprises-sensitive-data/ https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ultra-secure-backup-recovery-for-smb-enterprises-sensitive-data/#respond Tue, 20 Sep 2022 17:22:47 +0000 https://cyberfortress.com/?p=1465 The post Ultra-secure Backup & Recovery for SMB, Enterprises & Sensitive Data appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]>

The post Ultra-secure Backup & Recovery for SMB, Enterprises & Sensitive Data appeared first on CyberFortress.

]]> https://cyberfortress.com/blog/ultra-secure-backup-recovery-for-smb-enterprises-sensitive-data/feed/ 0